Roman Abramovich's 200th Stamford Bridge fixture was not one for the scrapbook of reasons why he bought into the Premier League menagerie. An "easy game" for Chelsea, Sir Alex Ferguson had predicted, but this was true to the tradition of prospective champions having to fight for every yard of ground.

Bolton Wanderers were not built as doormats. Big, fit, combative and adept at late bombardments, they were in no mood to regard Nicolas Anelka's first-half headed goal as the first flake in an avalanche. Chelsea had high-stepped it to the top of the Premier League but here the fun ran out. This gruelling 1-0 win forced us to factor in the determination of lesser clubs not to be trampled on and the stress that gnaws away even at star players when the expectation is that they will dance away with a trophy.

This way it is more compelling. This way the rich and powerful suffer on the road to fulfilment. Spurs, Stoke, Liverpool and Wigan will be no more deferential than Bolton as Chelsea aim to reclaim the title they last held four years ago. "The Premier League is in our hands, we have to stay calm," Carlo Ancelotti, the Chelsea coach, said on a night when John Terry played through a first-half injury and Yuri Zhirkov shed a milk urn of blood in a collision with Bolton's Kevin Davies.

Some will think Manchester United should take encouragement from the desperation in Chelsea's countenance as Bolton subjected them to a late aerial assault. More likely is that Ancelotti's men now know they can survive the muck and nettles of English folklore. Goal-scoring records have been smashed but now the 1-0 win will do. United and Arsenal will cling to the belief that both Spurs and Liverpool remain capable of inflicting misery on the leaders at White Hart Lane and Anfield. On this evidence they had better be well-armed.

According to reliable sources the scolding Abramovich gave his players after the Champions League defeat by Internazionale left egos bruised and eyebrows singed. Chelsea's owner is no closer to winning Europe's shiniest prize but at least one demand had been met. This has been a caviar campaign for goals.

With the 3-0 FA Cup semi-final win against Aston Villa at the weekend Chelsea broke their all-time record in all competitions. The 122 struck in 50 games prior to this tussle with Bolton surpassed the 121 scored in 56 fixtures in 1964-65. With 85 in the Premier League, Carlo Ancelotti's men have demolished their previous best of 72 in that competition. The Chelsea coach seems bemused by this deluge, as if it came, like snow, one night, while he was sleeping.

Italian managers are not bred to chase goals. They are taught to seek control, to throw a rug over the opposition and emerge with the kind of narrow win Chelsea took to the bank last night. To that end Ancelotti relied on Didier Drogba and Anelka to grapple with Bolton's aggressive defence. By the end the pair had raised to 45 their combined catch in this campaign.

Abramovich has grown a white beard waiting for his team to regain domestic power and win him a Champions League title. He looks more like Ken Bates every day. Frequently accused of interfering in team affairs with his sackings and appointments, the oligarch can claim vindication for last month's lecture to the troops. More fun has been an Abramovich edict since the José Mourinho years. Fine manager though he is, Avram Grant was never likely to deliver thigh-slapping football and Luiz Felipe Scolari misjudged the defensive requirements of the set-piece league and failed to adapt to the gruelling nature of the schedule. Guus Hiddink returned to Mourinho's core strengths and added a small attacking twist. Ancelotti's challenge was to draw more from the under-achievers, Florent Malouda, John Obi Mikel and Salomon Kalou, and find a way to make Drogba and Anelka mesh.

Abramovich has observed a 71% win ratio at the Bridge and only nine defeats, so he can be satisfied with the returns, up there on his plinth. Some of those years he has sabotaged with his cliques and his impatience. This time he turned his fire on the players instead of the unfortunates who have carried the can for their failure to win the English championship since 2006. To reassert their domestic primacy Chelsea had to capitulate in Europe to the coach, Mourinho, who turned them from nearly men to champions and wait for United to stumble. To speed that process they had a free week to prepare for their 2-1 win at Old Trafford four days after Sir Alex Ferguson's men had fallen to Bayern Munich. The entertaining part is over now. Grace gives way to graft.